The Book of Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment, the Japanese Way

by Héctor García

2. Sadness. This emotion often stems from a sense of loss, in a broad array of situations. We feel sadness when we lose a loved one to death or separation, and we go through a grieving process as we adjust to our new situation. We also feel sad when we lose a useful or valuable object—for instance, a cell phone—or when our car breaks down or our income is reduced. There is also a more existential kind of sadness, which invites us to reflect, such as when we lose hope or the will to live for no apparent reason and find ourselves in a state of apathy that leaves us diminished. When this sadness lasts a long time, longer than is proportionate to the loss, it can lead to depression. When sadness is healthy, it allows us to understand what has happened, to say goodbye to what we loved, and to prepare a new strategy to move forward in life. It can be translated into art, in any form, as a path for our inner alchemy. From a physiological point of view, Ekman points out that this emotion causes us to lower our eyelids and turn down our lips. A person who is sad doesn’t pay attention to what’s in front of them—they aren’t in the present—and that’s why we say that they have a “blank stare.” Sadness keeps us tied to the past because our attention is focused on what we lost, what no longer exists, or what we wanted but didn’t get. In any case, as long as we’re sad, we aren’t in the here and now.